Bicycle Design

Author: James

  • Top tube pads

    I don’t know who owns this bike, but I saw it on the street in Charleston a few days ago. I enjoy seeing how people customize their bikes, but with the spoke cards, riser bars, day-glo toeclips, and plaid top tube pad, this one reminded me of the fixies that Bike Snob NYC is always…

  • Fonta folder and more

    I am quite busy at the moment, so I probably won’t have another chance to post until sometime next week. I do have a few things I want to pass along, so this will be one of those hodgepodge posts with a few quick unrelated links. Bicycle Design reader Miles sent me a link to…

  • You don’t have to dope to ride this bike

    Bike content in design magazines is becoming a recurring theme here on Bicycle Design. The July/ August issue of Metropolis Magazine has an article about how bicycle manufacturers are being influenced by the design of traditional Dutch city bikes as tranportational cycling continues to become more popular in North America. Check out the article here.…

  • ORYX time trial bike

    Several of you pointed out this concept bike to me over the weekend; thanks for all the tips. The ORYX time trial bike was designed by Harald Cramer, a recent graduate of the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg in Germany. The design looks nice, especially the integrated front chainwheel/crank. I also like the subtle graphics…

  • Specialized 2D helmet

    My helmets are all getting pretty old, so I have been shopping around for a new one lately. I generally like the design of Specialized helmets and I have been happy with the ones that I have owned in the past, so I was considering buying a new Decibel. Of course, high-end helmets are pretty…

  • Do you know what your favorite pro is riding?

    Longtime cycling fans will remember watching Greg LeMond racing for La Vie Claire on a Huffy. Around the same time, the mid eighties, the 7-11 Team rode Murray and later Huffy bikes. Of course, the bikes weren’t actually made by those companies; Serotta and other high-end builders made them and the sponsor’s decals were just…

  • How many bikes does one person need?

    Yeah, I know that I have too many bikes right now. In addition to the eight bikes shown here, I have 4 complete framesets and several wheelsets and other large items that are just taking up space at my house. I have been going through my bike room the last week or so and organizing…

  • An innovative aerobar design

    Several years ago, a good friend shared with me an idea that he had for a bicycle product. His idea was a clip on aero bar that would use a detachable faceplate stem as the point of attachment, rather than clamping on to the bars. Maybe he should have actively pursued the idea at the…

  • Bikes of the Tour de France

    OK, as you can tell by the absence of green on Hincapie’s Discovery kit, this picture is not actually from the Tour de France. Instead, this is one of my shots from the Tour de Georgia earlier this year. I would like to be in Europe watching the race and taking new pictures, but instead…

  • The Spinal trike

    Jakob sent me these renderings of his “Spinal” recumbent trike for commuting. This was his final project to get his Masters Degree in design in Denmark. I wish I could tell you more about the design, but I couldn’t read the bit of text accompanying the images that was in Danish. Oh well, thanks for…

  • The ID annual design review

    This morning, I thumbed through the July/August issue of ID magazine. The 53rd annual design review issue recognized a few products from the bicycle industry. The jury liked the SRAM/RockShox PushLoc system (pictured here), in part because of its easy to use single button design. You press once to lock the lever in position, which…

  • Friday links

    I don’t have much time today, but I do have several links that I want to pass along, so I will do my best to quickly cram as much as possible into a short post. Pictured here is a shot, by Giovanni Canitano, from the Pret a Rouler fashion show, which took place last week…

  • Update to the Kestrel/ Orbea post

    In response to my “You be the judge” post, someone from Orbea USA left a comment pointing toward an open letter that was written jointly by the top executives at Orbea and Kestrel. Both companies feel that any similar elements on the frames are just coincidental. With the letter, they want to let the cycling…

  • Navitas bicycle trailer/generator concept

    As a final year design student at the University of Derby in England, Paul Smith designed a bike trailer that doubles as a generator. “It’s a pure concept in sustainable transport” explains Paul. The trailer concept, called Navitas, is the first to create its own renewable energy. The rear wheel splits 3 ways to become…

  • Freewheeling in House and Garden

    I was planning to post another student concept today, but I am taking a short lunch and don’t have time to pull it together. In the mean time, you can check out an interesting Australian student design concept over at Spinopsys. I mentioned recently that I am seeing bikes a lot more often in design…

  • Cadence concept bike

    First I want to thank all of you who have emailed me with design submissions in the last month or so. I really do enjoy seeing conceptual designs from students or from anyone for that matter. I have quite a few submitted designs in the queue to post, but I just have been insanely busy…

  • You be the judge

    I was visiting a factory in China last year and saw a very distinctive element from a product that I designed on a competitor’s prototype (it was not a bike related product for the record). As if it wasn’t blatant enough, my product was sitting on the workbench right next to the competitor’s design. The…

  • Folding bike design article

    Mark Sanders sent me a link to an article that recently appeared in the UK based magazine Design Week. The article is about the design of folding bikes, a subject that Mark knows quite a bit about (you will notice that he is quoted several times in the article). For those of you who don’t…